


God have Mercy

by Lealdade



Series: Never Stop [1]
Category: Merlin (TV), Merlin - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Merthur - Freeform, Part 1 of...
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 00:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/729782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lealdade/pseuds/Lealdade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 1 of an on-going series. Merlin is really having one of those days, he's late for a job interview, Uni starts in just a few days and its raining. He honestly doesn't think things can get much worse. And then he runs into Arthur Pendragon...Literally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. God Have Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at an on-going fic, so forgive me if ive done something really stupis, could you just point it out? Any pointers would be really appreciated :) Enjoy and leave a comment - Lealdade

_This isn’t even funny anymore_ , Merlin thought bitterly as the rain battered him from above. It always happens at the most inconvenient of times. Sods law they call it. Sods law, or just his bad luck that the heavens would open the day he had his job interview. Okay so it wasn’t a huge interview, but a student has to pay their way through uni nowadays, _we can’t all be made of money_ Merlin brooded as he pulled the hood of his jacket further over his head. The attempt to keep the rain out was futile, and his hair clung to the curves of his face as he forced his way down the road.

It was the beginning of his first year studying Ancient History at Albion and Merlin had been anxious to make sure he had a job lined up for the rest of the year. That was how he had somehow ended up getting permission to move into his new flat 3 days early. The university weren’t overly happy with the idea of having a random student in their accommodation before moving day, but Merlin had convinced them it was best for everyone; and if he were completely honest, he was thrilled. It meant that he had time to get used to the area before his new flatmates arrived tomorrow. _Tomorrow…God how did that happen? When did this end up being my life? I’m sure I was only 5 yesterday._

Merlin smiled fondly at the thought of running around his back garden in his dungarees – because Hunith had been one of _those_ parents - with his mother sternly telling him to “GET AWAY FROM THAT TREE MERLIN EMRYS BEFORE I COME OVER THERE!”

“But Muuummm!” he had yelled back in the petulant way children do, “Will’s stuck up there again, I’m just going to help him down aren’t I Will?”

“I’m not stuck!” Will had yelled back far above Merlin’s head, “I’m being a monkey”

Hunith had simply rolled her eyes and told Will not to climb any higher whilst she went and got his dad to get him back down…

_Will’s dad_ … the thought jerked Merlin back into the present with a sharp twang, and suddenly Merlin wanted nothing more than to go back to his quiet room and eat copious amounts of Ben & Jerry’s cookie dough. That was behind him now though, and Hunith had told him time and time again that there really was nothing he could have done. Merlin really did need to move on from the past, it was part of the reason he had picked a university so far away from Ealdor in the first place. New city, new job, new life. _That new life would be a whole lot better if I could get to the damn museum without drowning in this rain though._

Three minutes. He had three minutes to make his way across the high street, down Crown street, across the Jubilee bridge and along another small back road to get to museum in hopes of getting the junior Curator job he had applied for a few weeks ago. _Not bloody likely looking like this_ , Merlin thought as he caught his reflection in a passing window and sighed in exasperation. His brown jacket was pouring streams of rain down his chest, and his blue neckerchief was soaked through, doing nothing whatsoever to protect his favourite top from the torrential downpour. He was going to be late, something the man on the phone – _Gaius?_ – had said would not be wise. Merlin got the impression that Gaius was not the kind of man to take tardiness lightly, and he really didn’t want to push his luck this early on.

All in all it was shaping up to be one of those days. Merlin was tired, cold, wet, late, and really not paying attention to the people around him. This, of course, meant that the gods of fate chose that precise moment, when Merlin was at his wits end, to have a bumbling moron bash into him - knocking him flat on his back.

***

Arthur was just having one of _those_ days. He’d just told Sophia it was over and left her crying in Starbucks, he would probably feel worse about it tomorrow than he did right now but, well, she always did like to make a scene. It was raining as though the weather had taken a personal offense to his very cowardly break-up, in which the words _Its not you it’s me,_ had actually come out of his mouth. Right now Arthur just wanted to go home and hit his head against something heavy and blunt until he could forget the whole ordeal.

He’d left Sophia his umbrella in a last-ditch attempt to regain some form of self-respect, Arthur couldn’t break a girl’s heart and then have her standing out in the rain; it just wasn’t right. _Looking like a bloody stupid idea right now though._ It wasn’t even as though Arthur had meant for things to get so out of hand with Sophia. It had all started off as a harmless kiss at the beginning of summer, and then –somehow- two months later she had become convinced that she was madly in love with him. Arthur was man enough to know that it was better to break it off now, than to lead her on when he just didn’t feel the same way.

It seemed like this day was never going to end, and he was still a good 10 minute walk from his flat. Arthur was tired, cold, wet and –

_Why can I hear Darth Vader’s theme? Oh!_ That was his phone ringing, but if it was playing Darth then it meant… _What the hell?_ He thought in a brief moment of – what he would later believe to be hypothermia-induced – insanity. _Not really like my day can get much worse._ He thumbed the answer button and put the phone to his ear covering it slightly in the hope of keeping most of the rain at bay.

“What do you want you harpy?” On reflection Arthur would realise that probably wasn’t the politest way to answer the call but it was only Morgana.

“Oh hi Morgana how _are_ you? I’m great thank you Arty darling, not that you asked mind…”

“Sorry Morgana, bad day, and don’t call me Arty. You know I hate it. What’s up?”

“Of course I know you hate it _darling_ little brother, I was just calling to make sure that you would be at dinner tonight actually… you didn’t forget did you?”

“No” _Yes_ “Of course I didn’t forget Morgana, I will be there, don’t you worry” _God the dinner I forgot about the bloody dinner_.

“Good”, Morgana’s tone of voice suggested that she wasn’t fooled in the slightest, “because if you leave me with him like you did last time then I swear to god Arthur I will find uses for my knuckle dusters that you really don’t want to think about.”

It didn’t even occur to Arthur that Morgana might be bluffing about the knuckle dusters… Morgana _never_ bluffed. “Morgana, look you know I was busy that night. If I had known he was going to be so-“

“Rude? Tyrannical? Obnoxious? Arthur he’s always been like that! If you could just stop thinking of Uther as the perfect father for just five minutes you’d see that-“

“Morgana we are not having this argument again! I am tired, I am soaking and I have to go and fresher-proof my flat, because the moronic children start arriving tomorrow and I am expected to-“

Morgana never found out what Arthur was expected to do because at that moment Arthur walked straight into a person he was fairly sure hadn’t been there just a second ago - and his phone went flying out of his hand. He stumbled backwards clutching his chest for a few steps before he managed to hold himself upright against a conveniently-located bin. He brushed his hair out of his eyes and started making his way toward the man who was now lying on the floor. Arthur leant down to help the guy up, apology on the tip of his tongue when the man looked up for the first time and Arthur was able to properly take in his face.

Suddenly Arthur forgot how to talk as his tongue became heavy and useless in his mouth. It seemed he was only able to stare aimlessly at the man at his feet. The guy was lean, but obviously muscled. The movement of his muscles as he sat himself upright was enough to revert Arthur to being a fourteen year old again and he felt too big for his own skin. He felt embarrassed and awkward, something that wasn’t helped by the burning he could feel in his cheeks which would inevitably be turning his face a shade worthy to compete against a beetroot.

Arthur’s eyes darted down in the hope to conceal the huge impact the man was having on him. This only made matters worse though as his gaze was drawn towards the blue neckerchief clinging to the man’s throat. Unfortunately that only led to Arthur noticing the man’s throat and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to catch the breath that had been knocked out of him during his fall. It rose and fell in a way Arthur could only compare to the rise and fall of the sea. Arthur would later scold himself for making such a soppy comparison, but at that moment he was distracted by the droplets of rain crawling their way down the man’s throat. Arthur had to focus very hard on resisting the urge to lean forward and lick the droplets from the man’s skin. _It would taste of salt_ he thought, and desperately tried to distract himself by moving his eyes away from the strangers throat.

Arthur’s eyes slowly worked their way upwards. They took in the full, pink bows of the man’s lips, the clean cut of the man’s cheekbones, and worked their way upwards to the mass of dark hair that created a stark contrast to the ivory colour of his skin. The man was just as soaked as Arthur, yet where Arthur’s was stuck to his face, the stranger’s hair was stubbornly sticking out in all manner of wayward directions. Arthur almost reached out to ruffle his hand through the stranger’s hair in an attempt to flatten it back down. Almost.

Arthur was beginning to think that the man was secretly a Celtic God and was sure he had never seen something so strikingly beautiful in his life. Until that is, he looked into the man’s eyes. Eyes that were bluer that the mystery shots Morgana had given him on his 18th birthday. Eyes that looked deeper than any depth Arthur had swum to in his many years of cave-diving. Eyes that-

Eyes that look freaking furious Arthur’s brain supplied.

Unfortunately for Arthur that was the moment his brain brought him back to reality and his mouth blurted “God have Mercy”.


	2. De Ja Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The argument seemed inevitable, and just a little bit familiar...

“God have Mercy”. Merlin gave the man an incredulous look, he couldn’t have heard that right.

“What?” he asked, the man jumped back a little from where he’d been reaching down to offer a hand and shook his head. Merlin tried very hard not to notice the way small droplets of rain fell from the man’s blonde head as he did so.

“Nothing… sorry”, he reached back towards Merlin offering the hand again. He smiled a little, expecting Merlin to take the offer. Merlin glared at the hand and, feeling something stir in his stomach, pushed himself up without taking the offer. A brief look of hurt crossed Blondie’s face, _-huh… Blondie… -_ but was gone again so quickly that Merlin had to wonder if it had been there at all. Merlin glanced at Blondie’s eyes , and was struck by the vivid blue orbs that returned his gaze. They sparkled in the rain and Merlin’s throat suddenly felt constricted, coated as though he’d eaten a bar of chocolate.

“Are you alright then my friend?” Blondie shoved his hand into his pocket and gave Merlin a shy smile.

“Do I know you?” Merlin shot back. _Where the hell did that come from?_ Hunith would have had whacked Merlin round the head for his tone, and he flinched at the thought. He hadn’t meant to be so rude.

Blondie’s face ran through a series of emotions – surprise, hurt, confusion – so quickly that Merlin nearly missed them. “Well, no but-“

 _Smooth Merlin, just apologise and_ -“So I don’t know you, and yet you called me friend?” _Argh God, what the hell is wrong with me?_ Merlin felt incredibly uncomfortable. He had a strong sense of de ja vu as the words rolled off his tongue, but at the same time they felt wrong… out of place almost.

Blondie’s eyebrows pulled downwards as though he were thinking very hard about something. If Merlin had been able to see his own reflection he would have realised that the man’s expression matched his own as he said “That was my mistake.”

“Yeah” Merlin drawled.

“I could never have a friend who could be such an ass” Merlin’s eyebrows rocketed at the harsh response. _Hardly harsh though is it you moron_ , whispered his conscience. The thought was drowned out however; by the burn of anger Merlin felt go through him at the insult. “Nor I one who could be so stupid” he replied.

Very rarely did Merlin look for a fight with random strangers. Later he would look back at the whole thing and think how out of character it was. Sure he had taken a few scrapes and knocks standing up for what he believed was right – it was part of his nature. But he would never pick a fight with someone for no particular reason.

Merlin took in Blondie’s strong, toned physique and the furious look in his eyes. _Oh you wouldn’t stand a chance,_ he thought. It didn’t matter that the man had a good few pounds of obvious muscle more than Merlin did. It had never mattered before, and for some reason Blondie provoked Merlin to an anger he hadn’t felt in years. Blondie gave a small laugh and shook his head some more as he took a step forward, getting into Merlin’s personal space. “Tell me, do you know how to use crutches?”

Merlin had been threatened many times in his life for a wide range of things. Yet, even from a young age he had always reacted in the same way. He took a further step forward, closing the space between the two of them; raised his chin so he was looking down his nose Blondie a little and faced the confrontation head on.

“No” he said in the most nonchalant manner he could manage.

“Would you like me to help you learn?” The cockiness dripped from Blondie’s tone and Merlin almost gave in to the urge to pull back his fist and swing it into the stupid man’s perfect nose. _Perfect?_ The small slip only added to his anger

“I wouldn’t if I were you” The words continued rolling off Merlin’s tongue as though he’s said it all before. The strange sense of de ja vu still lingered in the back of Merlin’s mind and if he had taken a moment, Merlin would have thought it peculiar how familiar the whole situation now felt. Merlin no longer felt as though the situation were strange, in fact the whole thing felt almost… comforting. _That doesn’t even make sense_ , Merlin chastised himself. Yet if he were being honest… it _did_ make sense.

Blondie laughed again, although now it seemed to Merlin that he was a little strained in his appearance. “Why?” he sneered, “what are you going to do to me?”

Merlin had always known how to best make someone feel uncomfortable, it was as innate an ability to him as falling over his own feet. “You have no idea” he whispered back, caressing each word so as best to get under Blondie’s skin. _Why do you even want to get under his skin?_ His conscience asked him. Merlin ignored it again.

Blondie looked Merlin up and down, assessing him slowly and then raised a single eyebrow to show that he wasn’t impressed. “I could take you apart with one blow”, he said.

The small ball of anger in his stomach twisted into a new kind of tension, and Merlin took a small shuddering breath before he replied, face inches away from Blondie. “I could take you apart with less than that”. Merlin pushed every drop of smugness into his voice that he could manage. If this idiot knew what he was capable of, if he only knew how true the words were he wouldn’t be looking so damn pretentious right now. If he only knew-

“DUM DUM DUM, DUM DA DUM, DUM DA DUM” Merlin and Blondie jumped apart like teenager’s being caught doing something they shouldn’t be, the noise throwing them back into reality.

Blondie looked flustered as he searched around for the source of the noise. “My phone…” he mumbled to himself. Merlin watched him as he located the little black device on the floor a few feet away. _What the hell was that about Emrys? You are never that rude! Go and apologise for being such a dick_! Merlin decided that the little voice in the back of his head was right.

He took a step forward to say something when Blondie bent down to pick up the phone that was still blazing the Vader tune, but was stopped in his tracks as he fully took in the man’s profile. Rain dripped down off his hair as he leant down and his fingers - _strong fingers_ Merlin’s brain supplied – curled around the phone. _The things he could do with those fingers- Stop it!_

Blondie stood upright and let out a small huff, he pressed a button and the Vader theme stopped. Merlin had never realised how terrifying silence could be until he was standing in the middle of a road with Blondie looking at him and he was surrounded by it. He couldn’t hear the steady thrum of the rain, and he couldn’t hear the pounding of his heart. Merlin thought his hormones must be taking revenge, _no one should be able to feel so many conflicting things at once,_ he thought. But it didn’t matter, all that mattered to Merlin in that instant was the blonde God standing in front of him. He was thinking that maybe he should apologise and ask for Blondie’s number, he’d all but forgotten about their argument until-

“Look I don’t have time to stand around and argue with you, some of us have things to do. Just look where you’re going next time”

It was the most the Blondie had said in their small encounter, and it managed to whip Merlin back to the state of anger he had been at just moments ago. “Look where I’m – _You_ walked into _me_ ”, he argued.

“Whatever” Blondie said and he made a start to walk away. And that might have been the end of it. Just a small interaction the two men would one day rant about to their friends. They could have seen each other in the street and never have realised, or cared, who the other was. It could have been the end… if it weren’t for Merlin needing to have the last word, “Moron”.

Blondie took another step in the opposite direction, but made sure that he raised his voice enough to yell back “Buffoon”

“Prat”

“Idiot”

“Clot-pole”

Blondie stopped walking and for a second Merlin got ready to run. He spun around and looked at Merlin with something akin to shock on his face. “Clot-pole?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips.

 Merlin tried to go for a nonchalant shrug and smirk, but only manage to grin from ear to ear. Blondie’s smirk broke into a proper smile, sending Merlin’s heartbeat racing. He nodded once at Merlin and then raised his voice so he could be heard clearly,

“Arthur”, he said.

Merlin’s face crumpled for a split second as he tried to place the word. _His name moron, it’s his name,_ the voice supplied. Merlin returned to grinning as he replied “Merlin”.

Blondie’s - _Arthur’s_ – face whipped into a look that obviously said he thought Merlin were joking, and Merlin gave another small shrug in return. He hoped that this one conveyed the right amount of _what can you do?_

“Merlin”, Arthur said. Merlin got the impression he was testing out the name on his tongue. He nodded and pulled his face back into a smile. “See you around Merlin”.

Merlin stood strapped to the pavement as he watched Arthur walk away, hands pulling his hood up, covering his blonde hair from Merlin’s view. He was transfixed until Arthur rounded the corner, when a niggling feeling started at the back of his head. He took a few moments to try and place the feeling but couldn’t manage to do so.

It was then that his brain caught up with him, telling him that he was now _very_ late for his interview. Merlin span round and ran in the opposite direction to where Arthur had gone, all thoughts of niggling feelings and deep blue eyes lost in the rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know I'm posting in snippets, just bear with me yeah?  
> Please comment, let me know what you hate and what you like :)  
> Thanks for taking the time to read.


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